The cabinet approved Monday the draft 'Toll Policy, 2014' making it mandatory for vehicles to pay road toll for using national, regional and district highways under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).
"The policy will help make the toll realisation process transparent, modern and time-befitting side by side raising the non-tax revenue. It would also help develop and maintain road infrastructures across the country," Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the media after the meeting at the conference room of the Cabinet Division on the day.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting held at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The Cabinet Secretary said the toll policy is being framed by updating the existing Toll Act, 1851 as the Ministry of Communication observed that there should be a comprehensive toll policy for the country's road network.
Under the policy, there will be three categories of road network-national highways, regional highways and district highways apart from Dhaka-Chittagong national highway.
The main features of the policy include identifying the possible toll realisation infrastructures, realisation method, where the toll would be deposited, on what basis the toll would be determined, fixation of the base toll and keeping scope for raising the rate of toll and its adjustment.
Mr Bhuiyan said that the existing flyovers, overpasses, bridges, tunnels, ferries and similar infrastructures in the district, regional and national road networks would come under the toll coverage. The bridges having length over at least 200 meters would also come under the toll coverage.
Besides, roads, bridges and other infrastructures being constructed on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) basis will come under toll. If any permanent structure is built instead of ferry services, then toll would be in place for one year.
In case of bridges, there will be four slabs for realising tolls. These are 200-500 meters, 501-700 meters, 751-1,000 meters and 1,000 meters and above.
The base toll for the district highways would be Tk 100, regional highways Tk 200, national highways Tk 300 and important national highways like Dhaka- Chittagong Tk 400.
The toll would be realised in three methods -- Operation and Management (O&M) following tender process, open auction method and finally by the department if there is no bidder available.
"There would be 13 categories of vehicles to be covered under the toll where the maximum toll would be 250 per cent of the base price while the minimum toll is 2.5 per cent of the base price," the Cabinet Secretary said.
For the national highways and important highways, the toll applicable for the medium truck would be 100 per cent of the base toll, for heavy truck 200 per cent, for trailers 250 per cent, for big buses 90 per cent, for mini trucks 75 per cent, for agriculture goods-laden vehicles 60 per cent, for minibuses 40 per cent and cars 25 per cent.
The floor price of toll would be Tk 5 for the rickshaw vans while the maximum toll for the trailers would be Tk 1,000.
Mr Bhuiyan said that the base toll would be revised and rationalised in every three years.
He said the RHD would not be able to implement the policy overnight. It would have to go for implementing the policy phase by phase.
"At present, motorists pay only for using bridges and two highways. There would be no need for cabinet approval to implement the guidelines which will now be done by the RHD," he said.
Asked whether the proposed toll would bring any negative impact on the country's economy, Mr Bhuiyan said," There would be no such impact on the economy especially on the prices of essentials".
"The RHD will impose toll on all highways in phases. The money will be transferred to the Road Development Fund for infrastructure improvement and maintenance," the Cabinet Secretary added.
The guidelines detail the establishments on which toll can be levied, the collection procedure, and where the money is to be deposited.
"The country has a huge network of roads and development of the road infrastructure is among the government's priorities. Their maintenance is also equally important," Mr Bhuiyan said.
He said that the RHD has finalised the draft policy in consultation with the concerned stakeholders
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